Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Very view observers of the
presidential elections outside of Egypt may have noticed the little circles
which enclose symbols on the propaganda posters of the candidates. These are
not mere adornments or amulets for political prosperity but they do have a very
pragmatic function: they are meant to facilitate the participation of the around
25% of citizens who can neither write nor read.

Each candidate was therefore free
to choose a symbol to represent his name on the lists at the polling stations. The
ones that remain for the second round are the ladder for Ahmad Shafiq and the
balance for Muhammad Mursi. Whereas the
former seems to promise an accelerated advance of the country straight up to
the sky, the latter claims his capacity to balance the different interest down
on earth. However, both options seem to convince neither the Facebook-community
nor the graffiti activists who keep expressing their discontent about the
election results on diverse levels of artistic accomplishment. Fearless they are
attacking the two presidential candidates while sarcastically stating that it
will be the last time for a long period...

"The Ladder": Ahmed Shafiq

Were the elections really
clean? May they be labeled truly democratic? Is it normal that after a popular
revolution, which had been able to overthrow a 30 years old regime, less than
50% of the same angry and now self-confident citizens proceed to the polling
stations? Is it fair to force people living in disperse locations of the
country back to their place of origin in order to fulfill their duty as citizens
of a democratic state? Is it not very likely that the poor employee who is
working in Luxor cannot travel all the way back to Cairo (more than 12 hours)
in order to deposit his vote? What about the analphabets? Did they truly
understand where to sign and were they left to proceed without any outer
assistance?

"The Balance": Muhammad Mursi

When the High Council of
Armed Forces lifted the state of emergency it seemed to push the country up the
ladder and into the democratic heaven. A few days later however, the same
ruling institution took hold of the legislative power which un-balanced the
classic repartition… Nevertheless, the demonstrators do not want to play this
kind of “balances and ladders” which seems to be a loosing game for the
revolutionaries. This is the reason why they called for another “milliuniyya”
(massive demonstrations) on the Tharir Square tomorrow.